Writing in the May 19, 2008 NY Times Op Ed section, Rose George talks about the health hazards posed by lack of proper sanitation. Cyclone Nargis struck a region with almost no toilets. One gram of human solid waste can contain up to 10 million viruses and 50 communicable diseases. These diseases include cholera, meningitis and typhoid. In the world today, diarrhea trails only pneumonia as the biggest killer of small children, greater than tuberculosis, AIDS or malaria. Rose George notes that the number of children killed by diarrhea is equivalent to a jumbo jet crashing every hour.
Gone forever are the days when it didn't matter if on occasion somebody used trees and weeds to relieve themselves. It matters now because there are so many people that what we leave can easily come in contact with another person, simply because there are so many of us even in out of the way places. It should also be noted: the disease-bearing pathogens quickly die when exposed to oxygen. That is why cow patties do not pose any great harm. Most of the pathogens are in the solids, not the urine. If the solids are on top of the ground, they will quickly become harmless. It is when solids get covered with dirt that the pathogens have a better chance to survive, because they are protected from oxygen.
Please accept apologies for any breach of etiquette this information may seem to present. None of us enjoys bringing up subjects like human waste. In fact, as Rose George points out, reluctance to talk about these sorts of things is rampant in the world today. It greatly hinders the effort to get an accurate focus on the true dangers being posed in disaster areas—the terrible danger of disease being spread because of inadequate sanitation facilities.
Parks and campsites are subject to the same dangers. It is important that there be adequate and easily accessible sanitation facilities wherever people might go walking, seek solitude, play, fish or watch birds. The trouble starts when such facilities are not readily available or amenable.
The trouble also starts in times of flooding. It only takes one flood, hence the importance of planning ahead. What is the plan for evacuation for your park or campgrounds in the event of flooding? Flooding need not be a hurricane or typhoon or tidal wave. It can be caused by a one-hour cloudburst. Two or three feet of water in the wrong place can be a flood that can present the dangers of sanitation.
We all need to pay careful attention to the regulations governing health and environmental protection. For many of us, regulations constitute an obstacle. Some view them as added expenses, added delays in obtaining permits, or irritants serving no useful purpose. But in fact regulations evolve out of experience. What is learned in one or several previous situations gives rise to regulations designed to prevent more of the same.
Many people think the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency regulates sanitation and wastewater systems. It does not. Each state regulates sanitation disposal. EPA sets standards for environmental safety: ground, air and water. It also receives information and monitors what is happening to the environment, providing important research and data to the states so that the best environmental practices can be reflected in regulating wastewater. Industrial wastes are a very large concern as are the sanitary waste materials generated by homes, cabins, recreational vehicles, mobile trailer homes, other vehicles and campsites. Given that our usable water comes from a very limited supply (wells, lakes, rivers and aquifers that can easily be polluted), it is vital that regulation be based on solid information and good science.
Problem number one is the use of water to flush waste. A single flush can use up to eight gallons of water, with a household of four people using more than two hundred gallons a day just to flush the toilet. Low-flow toilets address this problem by reducing the amount of water used and increasing the velocity of the flush. Waterborne sanitation is often perceived as the normal method for the disposal of human waste. Due to its “flush and forget” nature, it is seen as the ideal solution. But the strain on water resources is enormous. To flush away 100 gallons of human waste, which is the average amount per year per person, it can take more than 8,000 gallons of water. (8 flushes per day times an average of 3 gallons of water per flush.) For the most part, the water used to flush is treated water or high quality well water. Multiply that many gallons of water by the 300 million persons living in the United States: more than 2 trillion gallons of high quality water being used to flush. Added to this is the cost of operating and maintaining treatment plants and septic systems to accomplish the absurd: treating the once-treated water again to make it safe for discharge into the ground or body of water absorbing the waste water.
It does not require rocket science to figure out that in a time of severe drought, rising demands on dwindling supplies of usable water and rising treatment costs, there must be a better way to dispose of human sanitary waste. As any environmentalist will quickly point out, non-discharge toilets or sanitation treatment systems would make far more sense and be much cheaper to operate than the traditional waterborne sanitation that has us flushing toilets and urinals around the clock.
Problem number two is when the ground cannot properly handle human waste at a given site or in a given watershed area that would otherwise use a septic system. Categories of products and systems addressing this problem include advanced treatment systems, microbiotic treatment systems, portable potties, holding tanks, lagoon systems, evapotranspiration systems, chemical toilets, digestor tanks, composting toilets, incinerating toilets and evaporative toilets.
The face of the future is to be found in the use of alternative toilets and sanitation systems in the nation's parks, recreation areas and campgrounds and by individuals where waterborne sanitation is not always feasible due to water shortages, pollution, costs, climatic conditions and impractical applications. The result has been the pursuit of alternative forms of sanitation such as pit latrines, composting toilets, chemical toilets, incendiary toilets and waterless evaporation toilets (dry sanitation). Each of these systems has its merits and, like all sanitation systems, none is perfect.
Information is available on the Internet for anyone researching alternatives to flush toilets, septic systems and hookup. Most of these products and technologies have been designed to address one or both of the two central problems presented by flushing away human waste. There are four main categories of waterless toilets and sanitation systems on the market. These include portable toilets, frequently seen at construction sites; vault toilets, often found in large parks; composting toilets; and evaporative sanitation systems. The following chart demonstrates some differences among the main alternative types that are non-discharge:
Sanitation TypeCompostChemicalLatrineIncendiarySepticDryDischargesNoNoNoNoYesNoUses waterNoNoNoNoYesNoUsesNoYesYesNoNoNochemicalsMust pumpNoYesYesNoYesNoMust dumpYesYesYesYesNoNoMust percNoNoNoNoYesNoNeedsNoNoNoYesNoNopowerOdorsYesYesYesYesYesNopresent
By way of terminology: on-site sanitation means those systems that take care of sanitation on location, as opposed to using sewer lines that take the waste to a central treatment site. Non discharge systems are those that do not put anything into the ground. The two most prevalent ways for disposing of sanitation are sewer line hookup and septic systems. Septic systems are on-site systems that discharge treated waste into the ground. Alternative systems are all other systems besides flush toilets on sewer hookup and septic systems.
Composting toilets: the advantage of these toilets is that they yield a usable by-product. Coming in a variety of sizes, they are an economical way to have sanitation treatment, especially with very low usage. They do require attention and are effective only within a narrow temperature and humidity range.
Chemical toilets: these are intended to be pumped. Porta-potties are the best known and most widely used. Other smaller versions of chemical toilets for low usage such as on boats and at sites used only intermittently provide a low-cost way of handling human waste. These systems require pumping and what is pumped must be disposed of according to local code.
Pit latrines: handy for outdoor use, especially in the camp and wilderness settings. While they may be dug by hand and buried in some settings, most jurisdictions that still allow pit latrines require that they be pumped.
Incendiary toilets: these evaporate waste with the use of high temperature heat.
Dry evaporative toilets: evaporate liquids and dry the solids.
What each of these types have in common is that they put nothing into the ground and do not use water. They differ in design, size, capacity, price and method of disposal. The user, therefore, will need to consider space and placement requirements, along with anticipated volume of usage, maintenance and any pumping requirements.
Portable toilets/chemical toilets simply collect the waste in small tanks that have a substantial amount of liquid chemicals pre-loaded for the purpose of killing pathogens and controlling odor. The tanks are then pumped and trucked away for disposal or drained into septic systems or sewers. Variations of these are also used in RV's, boats, trains and planes.
Composting toilets collect human waste and turn it into humus.
Incinerating toilets burn the waste, reducing it to a fine ash.
Evaporating toilets evaporate the waste.
Depending on the methodology, these alternative systems either reduce or eliminate the amount of waste needing to be pumped.
Here is some additional possibly relevant terminology:
On-site treatment: just over half of the wastewater from homes and structures in the United States is discharged into collecting lines (sewer mains) that take it away to wastewater treatment plants, lagoons or other types of centralized treatment. “On-site treatment” is the term used when this is not the case and instead the wastewater is treated at the point where it leaves the structure. The most common systems for on-site treatment are septic systems. These are called “on-site treatment systems”.
Discharge systems: are designed to both treat wastewater and put it into the ground differently than septic systems. The two most common types are aerobic systems and microbiotic systems.
Aerobic systems: spray the treated wastewater onto the surface of the ground instead of discharging it under the surface.
Microbiotic systems: may discharge the treated wastewater onto the surface or under the surface. They add microbes to bacteria already present to treat the wastewater.
Non-discharge systems: those systems that treat the wastewater but do not put anything into the ground. These systems are not capable of handling large amounts of wastewater. They are typically waterless systems or very low water use systems and are only used for treating sanitation discharge (what comes out of the toilet).
Composting systems treat the sanitation and turn it into material which can be used as soil enrichment.
Evaporative systems get rid of the liquids and render the solids harmless, reducing and drying them in the process.
Vault toilets: holding tanks with a toilet. They are commonly found in outdoor settings such as parks, and at roadside restroom facilities.
Chemical toilets: waterless toilets with a holding tank. Heavy use of chemicals kill the pathogens. Portable toilets are a common variation of chemical toilets and are most often referred to as porta potties or porta johns.
Codes: are the regulations governing sanitation systems. Each state has these codes. Counties and cities usually are given authority to add to the state codes and, in some instances, to allow variances from the codes suited to specific situations. They exist to protect human health and the environment. Before permits are issued for the installation of any sanitation system information about the site is required to make sure that the system is properly matched to the site conditions and the intended use. The permitting process is handled by the local Health or Environmental Protection Departments or both.
Much work has been done in the past to develop evaporative sanitizing toilets that are efficient and cost-effective. Further improvements are possible and desirable.